The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism says South Korea held the largest number of international conferences last year.

The country hosted 997 of the total eleven-thousand international conferences that were held, according to the Union of International Associations(UIA), taking the top spot for the first time.

It steadily moved up in the rankings from fourth in 2014 to second in 2015, while its share of the international conference market also grew from seven-and-a-half percent last year to nine-and-a-half percent this year.

Among global cities, Seoul hosted 526 conferences last year, ranking third in the world and second in Asia. Busan came in 14th in the global rankings, while Jeju Island placed 17th.